U.S.

LAPD shooting in ex-cop manhunt violated policy

LOS ANGELES - Eight Los Angeles police officers
violated department policy when they mistakenly riddled a pickup truck with bullets, injuring two women, during a manhunt last year for cop-turned-killer
Christopher Dorner, a civilian
oversight board announced Tuesday.

Police Chief Charlie Beck and Alex
Bustamante, inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Commission,
independently recommended that the shooting be ruled out of policy, commission
President Steve Soboroff said. He did not provide further details.

Beck will decide disciplinary measures
for the officers, who were assigned to non-field duties during an LAPD
investigation. Possible measures could include extensive retraining,
suspensions or even firings.

At a news conference, Beck said he
couldn't comment on what discipline the officers may receive because their
information is private under state law. He said "these officers will all
and have all received extensive training as had the whole Los Angeles Police
Department relative to these types of issues."

On Feb. 7, 2013, Los Angeles police
guarding the Torrance home of a high-profile target named in Dorner's manifesto opened fire on a pickup
truck they thought was Dorner's.

It actually contained the two women
delivering newspapers.

"This was a tragic cascade of
circumstances that led to an inaccurate conclusion by the officers," the
police chief said.

The officers had earlier learned that
the target's wife recently had seen Dorner
in the neighborhood appearing to case the location, and just prior to the
shooting officers heard over police radio that Dorner
was getting off the freeway nearby, Beck said. In the early morning hours,
officers said they saw the blue Toyota pickup "creeping" down the
road, according to the chief's report, with its high beams and flashers on.

In his report to the commission, the
chief said he expected that officers "make every effort that they
determine that the truck was in fact Dorner's."

He wrote, "While there were
similarities, the truck that approached was a different make and model, different
color, had no ski racks and no over-sized tires."

Beck said officers opened fire
immediately after one woman threw a newspaper and an officer mistook the sound
of it hitting the pavement for gunfire.

"There is no evidence to support
that they were holding an object that could be reasonably perceived to be an
imminent deadly threat," Beck wrote in his report. He said an officer with
similar training and experience would not reasonably perceive a deadly threat
in the same situation.

"I sympathize with the officers,
but I have a very high standard for the application of deadly force, and the
shooting did not meet that standard," he said Tuesday.

Officers fired 103 rounds, and up to
40 of the shots hit the walls, windows and garages of nearby homes, Jonas said.

Emma Hernandez, who was 71 at the
time, was shot in the back, and her daughter, Margie Carranza, then 47,
suffered minor injuries. Hernandez recovered except for some slight shoulder
problems but neither woman returned to work, Jonas said, adding that Carranza
tried but "it was too traumatic for her."

"The emotional and mental trauma
is still there and they're still dealing with that," he said.

The shooting occurred hours after Dorner opened fire with an assault rifle on
two Los Angeles police officers who had stopped his pickup in the Riverside
County city of Corona.

During the resulting gun battle, one
officer was grazed and the other was sprayed with shattered glass. Donner fled
and a short time later shot two Riverside police officers, killing one.

"Both of these incidents were
tragic for all involved, the officers who were injured in the first incident
and the innocent women injured in the incident in the City of Torrance,"
Soboroff said in a statement. "As in all use of force incidents, the
department has completed a thorough review and will adopt the lessons learned,
both good and bad from these incidents."

Soboroff said the Police Commission
followed Beck's recommendation that the lethal use of force in Torrance was out
of policy, making its determination after nearly three hours of discussion and
months of investigation by the Police Department.

The same day that the women's pickup
was shot up in Torrance, a police officer in that Los Angeles suburb opened
fire on another pickup truck.

Torrance police Officer Brian McGee
believed Dorner was in the truck when
he rammed it and opened fire, according to Los Angeles County prosecutors who
determined that his use of force was reasonable and declined to file criminal
charges. McGee has not been disciplined by his agency.

David Perdue, of Redondo Beach, who
was on his way to surf, wasn't shot but he suffered head and spinal injuries.
The city of Torrance paid him $20,000 for the damage to his truck and he has
filed a federal lawsuit.